I want to get my son a computer just to start learning and I'm looking at the pine book pro once it comes back in stock. Is that a good idea or would it be worth it to get something beefier? I have money but I don't want to buy something more than he needs.
He is probably going to want to game but I want to limit that because he already plays xbox or whatever. It's important to me that he gets a linux laptop because I want to expose him to non-proprietary software, also I would prefer to support a company that ships hardware with linux.
>just to start learning get an old crustpad and install openbsd
Zachary Baker
thinkpad t420 literally. it's more than enought to launch browsers and even VMs. cheap and very sturdy. i think it's perfect
Jaxon Morris
he's in elementary school. i'll give him a macbook when he's older if he really wants one
Cooper Richardson
How old is your kid? If you have a spare screen and mouse and keyboard, from what I heard about the pinebook pro, a raspberry pi might be better. If it is okay to use it where the screen sits only.
Parker Price
hmmmm, you know i might have some old laptop sitting around... maybe it's spoiling him a bit but i kinda wanted to get something new. i guess i can check out thinkpads
David Brown
you know, it's what I want in an ultralight, long battery life, metal body, aarch64, it's just from what I've heard the display is dogshit and the rockchip is worse. Now, I'm a proponent of minimal computing and my own laptop is an arm based mediatek cpu laptop with a73x4 + a53x4 and the rockchip is worse with an a73x2 + a53x4. The drawbacks on mine are plastic body and 1366x768 ips. I would really like an updated pinebook, like one with the upcoming mediatek 9000, supposedly better than the snapdragon 8
Josiah Brown
good idea except i recently donated my extra monitors when i moved which was dumb.
my kid just turned 7 and is still learning to read and stuff. i just want to put him in front of a computer
James Bailey
>7 Why not just give him some book or something? Why not play catch with him instead of plopping him in front of a screen all day?
Chase Anderson
...have you ever had a child? 7 year olds are usually old enough to start showing interest in things other than reading and playing with a ball. A child spending 30 minutes - an hour learning to use a computer is not the same as putting a toddler in front of an ipad for 8 hours a day.
Dominic Davis
>my kid just turned 7 wtf are you getting a 7 year old their own computer? Teach them to play, create, draw, sing, everything human before you plug them into a computer and turn their brain fucking off.
Lincoln Nelson
>A child spending 30 minutes - an hour learning to use a computer They don't need their own computer for that. They can and should use yours. Because I'll bet you any money that 30 minutes will turn into 3 hours within a month.
Anthony Wilson
because that's what happened to you, as you're naturally predisposed to becoming addicted to things, yes? believe it or not most parents are capable of TAKING AN OBJECT AWAY if it becomes a problem. I'm sorry yours didn't and now you're here on Any Forums lol I'm failing to see where a computer prevents you from doing those things as well. Unless OP is going to take his kid off grid into the mountains he's probably going to have to get used to using technology at some point. as long as he makes sure the kid follows time limits on the thing, who gives a shit. he came here for laptop recommendations not a fucking lecture from a bunch of childless schizos
Isaiah Bell
> I want to expose him to non-proprietary software I can promise you that a 12 year old is not going to understand the politics of proprietary technology, he will just wonder why his dad is a cheapskate.
Jack Cooper
it'll go full circle, start them young with based tech, then they'll go through a shit consoomer phase going against dad's ideology, then they'll come back around and see the light when they're mature enough
Lucas Taylor
Your kid will become a tranny at 15 Screenshot this
Blake Richardson
If you want to run Linux, then you don't need new hardware. Old usiness laptops are far more than enough for this use case, and frankly, I don't see why you need a laptop for the purpose at all? If he can carry it with him, he'll be tempted to leading to him losing it. So I'd look at used business pcs (dell optiplex line especially) as well. Latter is also better if he wants to game later on, since you can upgrade a desktop pc with a gpu and use proton until he needs a gaming pc with windows. If he doesn't get into pc gaming, then that same optiplex will last him well until he programs well enough to get into docker and vms. But in any case it's more than enough for his use cases.
> rpi A pi4 4/8 gb with active cooling is a decent desktop computer for your use cases and it's cool enough so your child can brag with it. It also can be easily taken away, costs pennies to run, and if he f* it up, then you can reflash the sd card and the box will be upand running again.
Gabriel Rogers
As much as I like PINE64 and would buy a Pinebook Pro myself if I could, a T420 is THE laptop for this. Software support is fine on the PBP but it's still not great and while the T420 will run absolutely anything, this won't. It's also infinitely easier to reinstall if he fucks something up. >is still learning to read and stuff. Ngmi, fuck the computer, give him a lobotomy to make his life easier instead. I could read just fine at 7, in fact I had already installed udindu on my computer before I turned 8. He's retarded. >I would really like an updated pinebook wait till probably Q2 2023 for the RK3588 to start fucking working and for them to put it in the Pinebook Pro, that's a A76x4+A55x4 with PCIe 3.0 and 3 PCIe 2.0 controllers.
Kayden Campbell
>start them young with based tech This works. I started with Windows XP at 4 years old. Most people my age and younger started with smartphones much later. The difference is clear, they only know their computer for games and some don't know if they have a computer at all, meanwhile I barely use my phone and will always prefer to use an actual computer, phones are just worse.
Brayden Martinez
>Q2 2023 >A76x4+A55x4 eh, by Q2-Q3 2022 I can probably find a S8cx X1x4+A78x4 made by a big name
Josiah Davis
and run windoze on it? fuck that shit
Luis Lee
>and run windoze on it? oof, that's the thing, run windows, chromeos, or enjoy bugtesting on the forefront of modern ARM Linux
Joshua Kelly
Older thinkpad is better. More durable and probably better performance as well. Also try not to push him too hard in any direction if he's reluctant, it can cause a backlash later down the line.
Andrew Turner
Also you can't stick your own SSD in, can you? You can on the PBP, with the RK3588 it will also be PCIe 3.0 x2 iirc, RK3399 is only PCIe 2.1. Not to mention you can also run a PCIe WiFi card along with it due to the other x1 controllers.
Samuel Gutierrez
>and probably better performance as well. not if it's a dual core, it's pretty close then (but that's all 6 cores vs just 2)
Lincoln Hill
I want a PBP now, even with the dogshit rockchip, I currently use a laptop with an mt8183 so it's not too far off the shit spectrum, and the next rockchip sounds better but the bottom line is i'd want better
